“I’m humbled,” Evans said of being selected as an inductee. “I’m proud of my accomplishments and I’m just humbled to be selected.”

Evans played three years in the NFL with the Broncos, catching passes from Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway and sharing a locker room with the likes of other Hall of Famers Shannon Sharpe, Terrell Davis and Gary Zimmerman.

It’s not somewhere Evans thought he would be when he first played football as a seventh-grader.

“I was always a baseball guy,” said Evans, an Admiral King graduate. “I wanted to play in the MLB. I really got into football because of my friends. They were all doing it, so I kind of just went along with everyone else. And let me tell you, I was the furthest thing from a natural.”

Evans said it was his time at Admiral King that truly turned him into an outstanding player.

“I grew up in a very competitive era for Lorain,” said Evans, a three-year letterman for the Admirals. “You had to be good, or you wouldn’t make the team. Between Admiral King, Lorain High, Southview and Lorain Catholic, you always wanted to be on the best Lorain team, so we pushed each other all the time.”

Evans’ success at Admiral King led to Toledo, where he was a four-year letterman who made first team All-MAC and earned the Nicholson Trophy in 1990, given to the team MVP.

However, Evans said that one of his proudest accomplishments from his time as a Rocket is becoming a piece of trivia history.

“If anyone ever asks who the first Nick Saban college player drafted is, it’s me,” Evans said. “Saban’s one year as Toledo’s coach was my senior year. They had hired him from the Oilers, he spent a year at Toledo and then went to the Browns.

“There were a few guys on our team who had a chance at being drafted, but I’m the one who got his name called.”

Evans was selected by the Phoenix Cardinals in the eighth round (204th overall pick) of the 1991 draft.

That is when the true spirit of perseverance — something Evans credits to being raised in Lorain — came out in him.

Evans was a member of the Cardinals and Green Bay Packers’ practice squads in 1991 and 1992 and even had a stint playing for Barcelona in the NFL World Football League before he found a roster spot on the Denver Broncos.

“You know, for all of the flack that Lorain gets, I don’t get to live my dream if I’m raised anywhere else,” Evans said. “Growing up in Lorain gave me a chip on my shoulder. I always felt like I had something to prove. Getting drafted wasn’t enough for me. Making a practice squad wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to play. If I hadn’t learned the value of hard work and perseverance from being raised in Lorain, I may never have made an NFL roster.”

That is why one of Evans’ proudest moments from his NFL career is connected to Lorain.

“I take pride in getting up on a Sunday and watching Chris Berman do a segment on Lorain,” Evans said. “I can’t recall exactly when it was, but there was a Sunday when Raymont Harris, Brian DeMarco and I were all playing, and Berman did a segment on us and Lorain. That might be the proudest moment of my career.”

Evans made the most of his time with the Broncos, catching three touchdown passes from Elway before retiring in 1996 due to injuries.

As he prepares for his upcoming induction, Evans said that two things from his playing days truly sticks out to him.

“The first thing that hits me how humbling it is to have been coached by some of the people that I was,” Evans said. “There’s Saban, Mike Holmgren, John Gruden, Andy Reid, Wade Phillip,m Mike Shanahan, Alex Gibbs and plenty more.”

The other thing?

“Guys like Clay Matthews Jr., Ronnie Lott, Reggie White, Howie Long. I’ve been tackled by them all. And they pretty much all were like hitting a brick wall,” Evans joked.

About the Author

Jon is a 2011 graduate of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. While at Calvin, Jon worked for the college newspaper, Chimes, where he was the sports editor and co-managing editor. Jon began writing for The Morning Journal in March 2013 as a crime reporter before moving to the sports department in December 2013. Reach the author at jbehm@morningjournal.com
or follow Jon on Twitter: @MJ_JBehm.